'Judgment day': All eyes are on Trump as he grapples with how to respond to the UK nerve agent attack

Hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May
announced a series of harsh measures the UK would take against
Russia following its chemical attack on a former spy in the UK,
US President Donald Trump has stayed mum.

Multiple lower-level US officials, including those in
the White House, have publicly come out in support of the UK
and condemned Russia.

But since briefly acknowledging Russia's role in the
attack Tuesday morning after being pressed by reporters, Trump
has not done the same.

"All of us who have been around the block find it
bizarre that we would not be 100% behind the Brits on this,"
said one former diplomat.

Hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced the UK will expel 23
Russian diplomats as punishment over the nerve agent attack against a
former spy on British soil, President Donald Trump has yet to
weigh in.

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"This will be the single biggest expulsion for over thirty years
and it reflects the fact that this is not the first time that the
Russian State has acted against our country," May said. "For
those who wish to do us harm, my message is clear. You are not
welcome here."

May also said that Russians under suspicious would have their
assets frozen, and that the British Royal Family and government
ministers would not attend the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Meanwhile, Trump's silence on the matter since he briefly acknowledged the
chemical attack Tuesday has been deafening to former US
diplomats, many of whom wonder why the US hasn't been steadfast
since the beginning in backing its closest international ally on
the matter.

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May announced Monday that it was "highly likely" the Russian
government ordered an assassination attempt against Sergei Skripal, a former
Russian military intelligence officer who later became a double
agent for the UK, in Salisbury, England earlier this month.

Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were both hospitalized
and remain in critical condition after being exposed to Novichok, a nerve agent
developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shortly after May said Russia was the likely culprit in Skripal's
case, the White House called the attack "reckless,
indiscriminate, and irresponsible" but declined to specifically
name Russia, saying the details still needed to be sorted out.
That evening, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took a more hardline stance, saying
Russia was "clearly" behind the attack. Tuesday morning, Trump
fired Tillerson via Twitter.

While answering questions about Tillerson's firing, Trump said of
the chemical attack on Skripal, "As soon as we get the facts
straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or
whoever it may be." Referring to the UK's findings, he added, "It
sounds to me like they believe it was Russia, and I would
certainly take that finding as fact."

On Wednesday, after May announced the expulsion of the 23 Russian
diplomats - the largest number ejected by the UK since the Cold
War -multiple US officials, including the US ambassador to the UN
and White House staff, said the US stands in solidarity with the
UK.

However, the president himself has not come out and publicly made
that clear since his brief mention on Tuesday.

'Judgment day for Donald Trump'

caption

President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May react during a ceremony at the new NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017.

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REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

"Judgment day for Donald Trump," R. Nicholas Burns, a former US
ambassador to NATO, tweeted after the UK announced
the measures it was taking to penalize Russia. "Will he support
Britain unequivocally on the nerve agent attack? Back #NATO
sanctions? Finally criticize Putin? Act like a leader of the
West?

Richard Kauzlarich, the former deputy assistant secretary of
state in the Bureau of European Affairs, said the White House
should have backed the British from the beginning.

"When you have the British come out as clearly and decisively as
they did about who was responsible, the logic and gravity of the
situation would require the president to say something in
solidarity," he said.

"It should be almost automatic, especially with an ally this
close to the US."

Edward Price, the former senior director of the National Security
Council under President Barack Obama, echoed that view.

"For years, we heard from voices on the political right that
America couldn't possibly confront its adversaries without first
clearly naming them," he said. "And [on Monday], we heard the
White House Press Secretary condemn the act but very deliberately
skirt the actor, which, by all accounts, appears to be Moscow in
this case."

He added that not only did the US effectively hang the UK "out to
dry" by not staying in lockstep with the ally from the start, it
was also signaling to Russian President Vladimir Putin that "he
is free to act with impunity, including by carrying out deadly
acts in the UK."

The Skripal attack is perhaps the most high-profile case of its kind
since former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, a vocal Putin
critic, was murdered in the UK in November 2006. A public inquiry
into Litvinenko's death found in 2016 that Russian intelligence
officials were responsible for the assassination, and that Putin
was "probably" behind it.

Moscow scoffed at the UK's latest accusations linking it to the
Skripals' attempted assassination, dismissing them as a "circus
show." After the UK announced the expulsion of nearly two dozen
Russian diplomats on Wednesday, Russia called it a "very serious
provocation" and a "hostile action."

Meanwhile, Trump's silence since May's remarks on Wednesday
morning mark yet another incident in which the president, "for
whatever reason, is not prepared to put Russia on the spot,"
Kauzlarich said. "And Russia will draw the conclusion that
anybody would: that if this president, for reasons no one can
understand, will not criticize Russia on something this blatant,
what will it take?"

"All of us who have been around the block find it bizarre that we
would not be 100% behind the Brits on this," he added. "They've
earned it. Russia hasn't."